Academy of Music

The Academy of Music was a theater and opera house located at East 14th Street and Irving Place in Manhattan, New York City. The Academy was built in 1854 and seated approximately 1,500 people.^[1] It was rebuilt in 1866 after being destroyed by fire.

History

The Academy of Music was once described as “the first successful dedicated opera house in the United States" ^[2] The first opera season at the theater was in 1854 from October through December. An Italian troupe was engaged by US actor James Henry Hackett. The repertoire for the first season was ambitious and included Semiramide and The Barber of Seville by Rossini; la Favorita, Norma, and la Sonnambula by Bellini; and Don Pasquale, Lucrezia Borgia and Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti. From its inception, the Academy of Music not only presented opera and theater, but also served as a meeting and exposition hall for a wide variety of functions, including political rallies, charity balls, receptions, science & industry fairs, etc.

From its inception in 1854, the opera season at the Academy became the center of social life for New York's wealthy gentry. The most prominent and oldest families owned the seats in the theater's boxes. This emblem of social prominence was passed down from generation to generation. The inability of New York's newer wealthy industrial families, including the Vanderbilts, Astors and Morgans, to gain access to this closed society inspired the creation of the new Metropolitan Opera Association in 1880. The Metropolitan's new opera house at Broadway and 39th St., twice the size of the Academy, opened in 1883. It contained three tiers of elegant boxes to display the wealth of the city's new economic leaders. The new opera house was an instant success with New York society and music lovers alike and the Academy of Music's opera season disbanded in 1886.^[3]

In 1888 the theater began to offer vaudeville. From January 28 to March 1901, a revival of Clyde Fitch's play Barbara Frietchie appeared there.

The venue was rented by labor organizations in the early 1900s and used to stage rallies. It was demolished in 1926 and a Con Edison building was constructed on the site.

A second New York theater named the Academy of Music opened in 1927 and was located across 14th Street from the site of the original. It was built as a 3,000-seat deluxe movie palace by movie mogul William Fox and was designed by Thomas W. Lamb. It served as a venue for rock concerts in the 1970s, and in 1985 became the Palladium nightclub. The theater was demolished by New York University and replaced by the present Palladium Residence Hall.

Notes and references

External links

• Various pictures of the Academy at the New York Public Library site
• Academy of Music interior from Pictorial Diagrams of New York Theatres - 1883
• Cinema Treasures | Academy of Music